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Can they off set the dish in the other direction to see if it will pick up the 99? Is there a way to see if he moved the dish back towards the road (and thus directly away from the hill) if that would help pick up the 99 by decreasing the angle off the horizon (without actually moving the dish to avoid more unecessary holes in my roof)?

I had been thinking about trying to mount a dish on a pole in a different part of the yard where the hill is not so high. I wouldn't be able to do a 1.2 m dish though- is there a way I could hook something up just to try to get at that 99?

Thanks again for all the help. I think that I am stuck as I sort of surmised.

GBR!

The location of the dish needs to be moved it looks like.Part of the tools an installer should have is a tool to check the LOS "BEFORE" installing a dish.Moving it higher may get you the LOS you need, but there isn't any "trick" tweaking the dish, other than moving it. If those trees/bushes on the hill are in line, then you should plan to have even more clearance as they'll grow.

The guy that wanted to charge me $4-500 checked and said I had enough clearance to move the dish to that side of the house. The guy who actually did move the dish used some sort of device and said I had 2-3 degrees of clearance and that it should be ok. Unfortunately it appears that neither was right, in regards to the 99.

If you can get ahold of a camera tripod and a paper towel cardboard tube, just tape the tube on the tripod, stick an inclinometer on the tube and adjust it to the elevation of the 99 sat, and point it in the correct direction, then look through the tube. If you see anything except sky, move along to another location.

The guy that wanted to charge me $4-500 checked and said I had enough clearance to move the dish to that side of the house. The guy who actually did move the dish used some sort of device and said I had 2-3 degrees of clearance and that it should be ok. Unfortunately it appears that neither was right, in regards to the 99.

GBR!

It sounds like they were sighting off the 101, and not the 99, but even then 2-3 degrees isn't the "normal" clearance.

The guy that wanted to charge me $4-500 checked and said I had enough clearance to move the dish to that side of the house. The guy who actually did move the dish used some sort of device and said I had 2-3 degrees of clearance and that it should be ok. Unfortunately it appears that neither was right, in regards to the 99.

GBR!

In the original post you mentioned that the "Directv guy" told you that you have about two to three degrees and "that should be" enough.

"Should be" not the answer to accept from Directv. When he points the dish he is supposed to use the correct meter in order to verify the signal before he leaves the job. The correct meter for the job will tell him if the signals are of sufficient strength.

You stated that you went with the Directv guy as he was under the protection plan. If you call Directv and complain about the service it seems to me that at least you will get someone to come out and explain why you cannot receive the signal.

Many of us are speculating as to why you are not getting anything from the 99 sat. It could be a bad LNB, it could be a bad wiring job, or an alignment problem. And it could be a Line of sight problem.

I do not believe that you will be able to resolve the issue unless you can personally verify each area as being correct. I would therefore recommend again that you call Directv and get someone out there who is qualified.

Many of us are speculating as to why you are not getting anything from the 99 sat. It could be a bad LNB, it could be a bad wiring job, or an alignment problem. And it could be a Line of sight problem.

While we are "speculating", there are a few valid pointers:

Yes, a bad LNB could be the cause.

Wiring looks not to be the case "as much", since it would need to be a problem with both the 13 & 18 volt coax, "and" the same coax is working for the 101 SAT.

Alignment seems unlikely too, because 101 & 103 are getting signals.

While it's not "for sure" the LOS is the problem, looking at the photo posted, does suggest it is the most likely cause.

[*]While it's not "for sure" the LOS is the problem, looking at the photo posted, does suggest it is the most likely cause.[/LIST]

I believe I said that the Line of sight was a possibility.

So the OP has a choice. He can look at a picture and decide that the line on it tells him that there is no way he can get the signal from that position, or he can call Directv, which has been the point of my posts....

So the OP has a choice. He can look at a picture and decide that the line on it tells him that there is no way he can get the signal from that position, or he can call Directv, which has been the point of my posts....

I think we're all trying to help, and have offered a few options to look into.It seems like one or more installers haven't been as helpful as they could have been, so I can understand why he may have been looking for help here.

Pretty much I knew this writing was on the wall before I started looking into this whole thing. The installer pretty much told me as much when he finished moving the dish- he would have to move the dish back to the spot on the peak of the roof to get back what I had. He replaced the LNB (that was working fine when I had the two dishes). He rewired everything. He replaced the SWM.

He was quite up front that if we wanted the dish in the new location that the reception would be the way that it was.

I was hoping that there may have been something he missed or that there would be something else that could be done to fix this. I am still half thinking about trekking up that hill to see how hard it would be to put a dish on the top of it. That area is called "preserve land" and the area behind our house is not ours after the lot line but we are allowed to change the land as long as we don't put anything permanent on it.

Obviously it would be nice if DTV would change the signals on their satellites so that the lesser watched channels would be ones that would be carried on a satellite that would be harder to get a site line on.

Again, thanks for all the input and insite on helping with this issue.

They make a non-penetrating mount which you sit on level ground, weigh down with concrete blocks. It has a mounting mast. You level it, slap blocks on it, put the dish on it, and run coax to your house. Should be legal under your "change with nothing permanent" rules.

The solar panels are installed and it appears that I could move the dish back to the highest point on the roof but not quite to where the dish was previously- but closer to the side of the house more towards the slope of the hill that is lower.

Coupla questions then:

Will I be able to find an installer that would be willing to replace that dish above "habitable" area instead of the overhang- I realize that some may not be willing to do it "offiicially"?

The app for the android phone that was linked earlier in this thread- does it show the path of the 99 satellite that I am missing- aka would I be able to go up there with that app and figure out if it would be worth putting more holes in my roof without having to do trial and error?

Lastly nothing to do with this thread but reading the thread about the mentions of DTV and Dish merging: what is a hopper/harper and a joey?

We are still waiting for the solar guys to finish and the city inspection to happen. We also can't monitor our system on the internet yet. I have been waiting for these things until I was going to start to see if I could move the dish back to the apex of the roof nearer to where the hill behind our house (see the pics earlier in the thread) to see if I could get those channels back.

Lo and behold I was screwing around this morning and we have a bunch of channels back. Foxnews HD, ESPN HD, TBS HD, and we even got the PBS and CBS local channels back. I have done nothing to make this happen.

Anyone have any ideas why I am all of a sudden getting a view on the 99 now and one transponder on the 99s that we weren't getting before, without having done anything? We haven't had a fire on the hill or anything that would lower the tree line.

Lo and behold I was screwing around this morning and we have a bunch of channels back. Anyone have any ideas why I am all of a sudden getting a view on the 99 now and one transponder on the 99s that we weren't getting before, without having done anything? We haven't had a fire on the hill or anything that would lower the tree line.

You could also be just grazing the hill with the LOS to 99, and the satellites do wander a few fractions of a degree. The satellite might have moved enough to get a weak signal...in a day or two, possibly a week, it will likely go back to zero.